1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for stacking ferrules of a stacked-type optical connector, and a stacked-type optical connector.
2. Description of Related Art
An optical connector used for butt-connecting individual optical fibers of optical communication lines has a ferrule 2 and a single or multi optical fiber 3 like, for example, an optical connector 1 as shown in FIG. 29, the multi optical fiber 3 being installed on a main body 2a with the individual optical fibers 3a exposed at a butting end surface 2b of the main body 2a. The ferrule 2 has pin holes 2c and 2c provided on either side with the multi optical fiber 3 of the main body 2a between them, and it is butt-connected to a ferrule of another optical connector having the same configuration by inserting connecting pins, which are not shown, in the individual pin holes 2c.
To butt-connect the optical connector 1 simultaneously with a plurality of other optical connectors, it is necessary to form a plurality of optical connectors 1 into one piece. A method described in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2-297506, is known as a method for forming the optical connectors 1 into one piece.
However, when a plurality of optical connectors are assembled into one piece according to the aforementioned method, a stacking housing of a complicated shape with a plurality of inserting holes formed in it is required, and there are partitions taking an extra space between ferrules on the stacking housing. This presents a problem of a lower packaging density of an optical connector, hindering the achievement of a reduced size.
When consolidating optical connectors, conventionally, a plurality of optical connectors were rigidly fixed to a stacking housing or the like in some cases. However, there were some cases where the positions of the pin holes 2c and 2c in an optical connector were not aligned with those in its matching optical connector due to a manufacturing error or the like. This presented a problem of prohibiting smooth butt-connection because when a plurality of optical connectors were rigidly stacked up and a stacked-type optical connector in a stack was butt-connected with its mating stacked-type optical connector, the aforementioned connecting pins could not be inserted in the pin holes or the pin holes were damaged.